I was mugged by a “victim”

Jonathan Osmundsen,
Washington, DC.

I appreciate some of the coverage that’s focused on the Baltimore riots, and issues that influenced an explosion of pent up anger. That frustration is valid, those wrongs must be corrected. Here’s the “but”…

I’ve not heard one NPR story that mentioned the burning of a 60-unit building by rioters, which a church had intended for local seniors. I find it very frustrating to hear a person complain about racism, and then turn around and behave in a racist manner. Burning a business because it’s Korean, or Chinese, or anything else but ones own race is racist, isn’t it?

Yet this is something that, if I bring up as a white person, is automatically discounted as “out of touch” or somehow racist. I’ve been mugged several times growing up in NYC in the 70s. I’ve had friends who were victims of crime in NYC, DC, LA. Each time it was by an African American male.

Finally, when I was on a Grand Jury, there was another common element to the story. In bad DC neighborhoods that were majority African American, nobody ever saw or heard anything related to crimes. Somehow, it’s seen as a stand-up thing not to snitch, but that gives a pass to criminals and murderers who got out of jail, and returned to being that small percentage of a population that keeps the neighborhood down. Not the police, but the criminals (who are then excused because of the environment in which they were raised).

I understand that we need to help out this high-risk group of men and support that effort. But part of supporting the effort is embracing the whole of reality, even if that makes for a difficult conversation that might even risk branding one racist. I don’t think I am–if I was, I’d hope to grow out of it and mature my perspective. I guess that’s what I’m trying to do.